Purkur Pillnikk - "Enghrenjer"

Contents: "Twixt", "Now", "Not yet", "Rage", "Peeper", "The flight", "Vaterland", "Holy terror", "What can I do?", "Outlocked" (please note, these are Vidar's English translations of the song-titles, since I haven't managed to get a hold of the original Icelandic track-list)

Thanks to a  nice tape-trading-partner I was lucky enough to get a tape-copy of Purkur Pillnikk's since long deleted full-lenght-debut-LP "Enghrenjer". Purkur featured Einar Örn on vocals and they were a part of the Icelandic early 80s-"punk-elite" with bands such as Theyr and the Björk-fronted Tappi Tikarrass (these three bands later came together and formed the legendary Icelandic "all-star-anarcho-act" KUKL). "Enghrenjer" sees Purkur moving from their original surrealist-approach, in a less agressive and more laid-back, melodic direction. The counterpart is based on catchy up-beat guitar-signatures and Einar's usual, very-close-to-speaking, singing-style. It's too slow to be punk but too cheerful and pop-ish to be prototype-gothic, though the powerful opening "Twixt" has some obvious Joy Division-influences. The rest of the album is in a more houmourosly oriented vein, often remiscent of the early Sugarcubes, combining elements of rock and punk with pop-melodies. "Holy terror" is actually so good it could have been one of the bonus-tracks on the Elektra-release of "Life's too good". "Peeper" is an alternative take on "Gluggagaegir", the band's excellent contribution to the classical "Rokk í Reykjavík"-compilation, unfortunately this version is not as experimental as the original.

The only really outstanding song on "Enghrenjer"is the lenghty "Vaterland", which starts with Einar repeating Icelandic words to a monotone guitar-line. It starts gaining inensity as the drums come in and all of a sudden there's a creepy keyboard-sound in the background before it ends with a wonderfully freaked out distorted guitar-solo. It's the most experimental and advanced song on the album and I think it would have fitted well on the first KUKL-record. Purkur Pillnikk has neither got the diversity of Tappi nor the experimental intensity of Theyr, but they're still a very interesting band thanks to their homourous and melodic qualities. They're also the pre-KUKL-band most remiscence of the early Sugarcubes so if you find KUKL a bit too freaky, this may be a good alternative.